South Africa eyes 1 lakh visitors from India in 2016

South Africa is eyeing around one lakh visitors from India this year as it undertakes a number of initiatives including roadshows to position the country as a preferred destination.
South African Tourism, the country's national tourism agency, has launched here its 13th annual roadshow, an interactive programme planned to increase destination awareness among travel planners in India for this purpose.
"We are looking at around hundred thousand visitors from India to South Africa in 2016. We had 86,000 visitors from India in 2014 and 59,000 people from India visited in first nine months in 2015," South African Tourism Chief Marketing Officer Margie Whitehouse told PTI.

"We are confident to achieve these numbers if we maintain the visa-processing time to five working days during the year," she said.
On the roadshow, Whitehouse said: "We have always witnessed an overwhelming response from the Indian trade and are excited to see how this roadshow is going to contribute to the Tourism of South Africa."
Currently business and MICE segment constitutes the largest segment of visitors to South Africa followed by leisure.

"Though business and MICE constitute the largest segment, leisure is growing faster," South African Tourism Country Head Hanneli Slabber said.
"We are highlighting unique offerings such as safari, adventure, food and experience to add to the number of visitors from India," she added.

On about the average length of stay of visitors from India, Slabber said: "The average length is 12.9 nights per person.